Acer unveils new $300 C7 Chromebook with updated specs

Earlier today, Acer quietly unveiled the C710-2605, a brand new Chromebook and an update to its original C7 Chromebook that we recently reviewed. The newer model has better specs and nearly double the battery life.The display is the same as the original model, but Acer has doubled the RAM to 4GB and while also adding a larger hard drive. We were blown away by the original C7’s $200 price tag, but for let’s see what an extra hundred bucks will get you.

In our review of the Acer C7 Chromebook, we complimented Acer for making an attractive computer with speedy performance and an effective keyboard and touchpad. The only problems with the computer was a poor speaker and a not-so-great battery life. These problems seem to have been fixed in the updated version. As for the battery, it almost doubles in size. The first C7 had 3.5 hours of runtime and the battery was a 2,500 mAh li-ion. Now, the C7 uses a 5,000 mAh pack with an estimated runtime of 6 hours. The previous version’s battery was said to last 4 hours, so even if the new C7 can last 5.5 hours, that’s a big improvement. An extra two hours is the difference between watching one movie on the plane or two.

The new C7 Chromebook takes a huge jump in storage, moving from 320GB to 500GB. Google prefers that you use its cloud-based Google Drive storage, and Acer is offering 100GB free for the first two years of ownership.

Acer has yet to announce the release date for the new C7 Chromebook, but we can imagine it’ll be pretty soon.